Dec. 20, 2012

Nine UC points in the first four minutes, and Xavier’s winning night was done. / The Enquirer/Joseph Fuqua II

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There was never going to be a rematch. Fight Club II was not playing at US Bank Arena Wednesday night. The hype arrived, in prime time on ESPN, and maybe some folks held their collective breath. No need. More than 14,000 people showed up and a basketball game broke out.

Depending on which side of the gym you were on – Red over here, Blue over there, like a two-party political convention, basically – you enjoyed yourself a lot, or a lot more. Regardless, you didn’t leave shaking your head, unless it was in admiration of the suffocating press UC laid on the Musketeers in the second half.

The first Crosstown Classic was everything it should have been. Everything we knew it had to be. We couldn’t take another game like last year’s game.

“Off the charts’’ was Mick Cronin’s appraisal of the atmosphere. Cronin argued that if the newly named “Classic’’ is the city’s game, then why not play it downtown all the time? “It’s about celebrating our universities and our city,’’ said the UC coach. “Let’s do it.’’

Let’s do it every year, the way we did it Wednesday night. Together and classy, the schools donating $50,000 to the Freedom Center, the presidents and athletic directors posing together pregame, for a picture with the big, cardboard check. Let’s do it the way the players did, playing furiously, but with a respect that suggested mutual admiration.

Several times, UC players helped Xavier guys up off the floor, and vice versa. Bravo.

I don’t want to go all Kumbaya here; the underlying disdain is part of what makes this the best city rivalry in the country, even if that disdain is largely a creation of students and message-board weirdos, not players and coaches.

Don’t give me Temple-Villanova. Really don’t offer up North Carolina and Duke. They’re not even in the same town. This game is a stitch in our local fabric, second only to Opening Day when it comes to our sporting pride and identity. It’s important we do it with class.

Wednesday was class.

It helped that the game was nicely short on villains, for maybe the first time in 25 years. No Gates nor Gillen, no Huggins nor Holloway. Nice guys only, with no desire to get chippy or brutish, or do anything but play ball. What a concept.

UC won because it has better players this year, and more of them. That’s simplistic, sure. Except winning with better players hasn’t always defined this game. Xavier led at halftime, 24-22, but the wonder then was: Can the Musketeers maintain?

They couldn’t. Sometimes, full-court pressure serves two masters: It disrupts their team. It energizes yours. It’s the basketball version of football’s no-huddle. UC used the press in the first half, but didn’t seem convicted to it. Plus, Xavier’s guards were quick with the passes, thus avoiding traps.

“We were who we wanted to be in the first half,’’ said Xavier coach Chris Mack. “Then UC really showed up with their defensive pressure. They really rattled us.’’

As Cronin put it, “We out-athleted them.’’

It showed up mentally: Xavier had 15 turnovers. It also appeared physically. Both XU’s starting guards had to leave the game with leg cramps. The two-point halftime difference vanished quickly: UC led 43-30 with 10 minutes to play.

“Defensive-wise, we were playing so flat’’ in the first half, Sean Kilpatrick said.

Kilpatrick took it upon himself to change that, in the first minute after halftime. He made a steal, then saved the ball from going out of bounds, then exploded to the rim for a layup that put UC ahead, 25-24. Kilpatrick followed that up with a jumper from the left baseline, a couple more layups and a floater in the lane. Nine points in the first four minutes, and Xavier’s winning night was done.

The press and the mistakes it forced energized UC, after what Cronin called as bad an offensive half as he’d seen since he started coaching in Clifton. “We made it a game in the first half,’’ he said.

Then Kilpatrick made it a rout. He finished with 25 points. Afterward, he high-fived the UC student section and hugged university president Santa Ono, all the while pumping his fist constantly. It was fitting that Kilpatrick would be the star of the first Classic. His nickname in high school was Killa, presumably for the deadly efficiency of his offensive game, and not his demeanor.

“One of the best personalities of any kid I’ve ever coached,’’ Cronin said. “His positivity permeates throughout our team.’’

The positivity permeated US Bank Wednesday night. There was enough for everybody. Xavier lost the game, 60-45. But not really. Not really.